March Madness 2010

[worldfun]

For first post in this topic is nice to explain which sports are in this area :

NCAA Sports

*
Fall
o Cross Country
o Field Hockey
o Football
o Men's Soccer
o Women's Soccer
o Women's Volleyball
o Men's Water Polo
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Winter
o Men's Basketball
o Women's Basketball
o Bowling
o Fencing
o Men's Gymnastics
o Women's Gymnastics
o Men's Ice Hockey
o Women's Ice Hockey
o Rifle
o Skiing
o Men's Swimming/Diving
o Women's Swimming/Diving
o Track and Field (Indoor)
o Wrestling
*
Spring
o Baseball
o Men's Golf
o Women's Golf
o Men's Lacrosse
o Women's Lacrosse
o Rowing
o Softball
o Men's Tennis
o Women's Tennis
o Track and Field (Outdoor)
o Men's Volleyball
o Women's Water Polo

[worldfun]

The NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Committee has released this week's Division II men's basketball regional rankings. The top 10 teams in each region are listed below for each of the eight regions. Selections will take place via a Web cast selection show on NCAA.com, Sunday, March 7 at approximately 9:30 p.m. Eastern, except for the West region, which will be announced Monday, March 8.

The following top 10 teams in each region, with records through Sunday, February 28, were included in this week's regional rankings:


ATLANTIC Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. West Liberty 25-1 25-1
2. Indiana (Pennsylvania) 23-2 23-2
3. Saint Augustine's 25-4 25-4
4. West Virginia State 24-3 22-2
5. East Stroudsburg 20-4 20-4
6. Fairmont State 17-6 17-6
7. Alderson-Broaddus 22-5 22-5
8. Cheyney 16-11 16-11
9. Kutztown 20-6 20-6
10. Mansfield 17-8 16-7

EAST Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Stonehill 23-4 22-4
2. Bentley 22-5 22-5
3. Philadelphia U. 24-6 23-6
4. Merrimack 19-7 19-7
5. Le Moyne 18-8 18-8
6. Saint Anselm 19-9 19-9
7. Bloomfield 20-7 20-6
8. Bridgeport 21-8 21-8
9. C.W. Post 20-5 19-4
10. Felician 21-6 21-6

CENTRAL Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Minnesota State Mankato 21-3 20-3
2. Mesa State 19-4 17-3
3. Augustana (South Dakota) 18-5 18-5
4. St. Cloud State 18-5 18-5
5. Metro State 17-6 17-6
6. Winona State 15-8 15-8
7. New Mexico Highlands 14-9 14-9
8. Mary 13-12 13-12
9. Fort Lewis 16-8 16-8
10. Colorado Mines 14-9 14-9

MIDWEST Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Kentucky Wesleyan 23-3 20-2
2. Drury 19-5 19-5
3. Grand Valley State 19-6 19-6
4. Findlay 18-6 18-6
5. Central State (Ohio) 17-5 17-4
6. Bellarmine 19-7 18-7
7. Quincy 18-8 17-8
8. St. Joseph's (Indiana) 15-11 15-10
9. Rockhurst 13-10 13-10
10. Northern Kentucky 13-12 13-12

SOUTH Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Arkansas Tech 22-1 22-1
2. Florida Southern 19-3 17-3
3. Valdosta State 19-3 19-3
4. Clark Atlanta 21-5 21-5
5. Rollins 17-5 16-4
6. Alabama-Huntsville 18-5 16-5
7. Delta State 16-6 16-6
8. Eckerd 15-8 14-8
9. Barry 13-9 10-9
10. Tuskegee 16-9 16-9

SOUTH CENTRAL Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Central Missouri 21-2 19-2
2. Midwestern State 21-2 21-2
3. Fort Hays State 18-4 18-4
4. Nebraska-Omaha 16-8 16-8
5. Central Oklahoma 21-4 21-4
6. Tarleton State 18-6 18-6
7. Missouri Western State 15-10 15-9
8. Southwest Baptist 17-10 16-10
9. Incarnate Word 17-6 17-6
10. Northeastern State 16-8 16-8

SOUTHEAST Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Augusta State 23-2 23-2
2. Georgia College 20-4 20-4
3. Mount Olive 22-5 22-5
4. Catawba 18-8 17-8
5. Limestone 20-7 20-7
6. Anderson (SC) 21-6 21-6
7. Lincoln Memorial 14-8 11-8
8. Montevallo 18-6 18-6
9. Pfeiffer 17-9 17-9
10. Brevard 16-9 15-8

WEST Division II
Overall Record Division II
In-Region Record
1. Seattle Pacific 21-3 21-3
2. Western Washington 21-5 20-4
3. Cal Poly Pomona 18-4 18-4
4. Humboldt State 21-5 21-5
5. Dixie State 18-5 18-5
6. BYU-Hawaii 15-4 13-4
7. Cal State San B'dino 17-5 17-5
8. Central Washington 13-8 13-7
9. Alaska Anchorage 11-7 11-7
10. Cal State Dominguez Hills 16-9 16-9

[interested]

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
Sport - College basketball
Founded - 1939
No. of teams - 65 (since 2001)
Country(ies) - United States
Most recent champion(s) - North Carolina Tar Heels
Most championships - UCLA Bruins (11)
TV partner(s) - CBS, CBS College Sports Network, ESPN

[interested]

Champion Magazine

Chris Dahlheimer has an unusual career track. If he tells you what he’s going to do, he’ll have to kill you.

OK, so that’s an exaggeration. But go ahead, ask him.

“Well, I can’t tell you too much about it,” he’ll say.

Here’s what we do know about the senior wrestler at Lycoming: As a student, Dahlheimer has an almost perfect grade-point average in computer science. He’s a coaches association all-academic selection and a member of a Lycoming squad that had the eighth-best collective grade-point average in Division III last year.

As an athlete, the 6-foot-2-inch Dahlheimer is just as accomplished, having finished seventh in the 165-pound class at the 2009 Division III Wrestling Championships after nearly beating the top seed in the bracket. He was 15-1 in 2007-08, 24-4 last year and 13-1 already this season heading into January.

And as for that career thing, he wants to follow his father and his grandfather as a government contractor with the National Security Agency. As for specifics, well, that’s where it gets sticky. He’ll probably write some code, help develop software and perform a little maintenance on already established systems, but he won’t disclose much more than that.

He’s already acquired a government security clearance from his father’s firm, and he interned last summer as a software engineer with Praxis Engineering, a software and systems engineering firm in Annapolis Junction, Maryland.

“I’ve always been interested in computers,” Dahlheimer says. “I don’t see them going away any time soon.”

Dahlheimer’s wrestling opponents might wish he would go away soon. The Felton, Pennsylvania, native has been on the mat “pretty much from birth,” he says, citing his father’s influence as a high school coach in Maryland.

Dahlheimer says he likes the individual aspect of the sport, the skill required and the techniques learned over time.

“It’s not a team sport. You can’t blame anyone else for your mistakes,” he says. “It’s just you against one other person. The sport offers a mix of brute physical ability and technical strategy, almost methodical at times.”

Dahlheimer is one of more than 400 student-athletes at Lycoming, located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of the Little League World Series. About 30 percent of the student body participates in one of Lycoming’s 17 varsity sports. “All the teams are pretty tightknit, both within their own teams and with each other,” Dahlheimer says.

With Pennsylvania a hotbed for Division II schools, Dahlheimer says he considered choosing Division II but wanted a smaller institution. Williamsport also is only a couple of hours from his hometown, just the right distance, he says, for being independent without being detached. His only sibling, brother Keith, is a freshman this year at Shippensburg.

“But I also was attracted to the wrestling program at Lycoming,” Dahlheimer says. “I wanted to be part of something that had a good tradition and a bright future.”

Dahlheimer is now part of that future – and a unique part, at that.

“You don’t see too many 6-2 wrestlers,” he said. “Especially ones who major in computer science.”

[sportspro]

Denver Leads Wire-To-Wire For Third Straight Title

Five-and-a-half-months ago, University of Denver skiers did circles on Howelsen Hill, riding bikes and hiking all over the famous mountain that has turned out so many Olympic champions.

On Saturday, they stood at the base of the hill riding even higher emotionally, after pulling off a three-peat at the NCAA Championships.

"It's unbelievable, to be honest," DU Nordic coach Dave Stewart said after senior Antje Maempel sealed the deal with a win in the women's 15K freestyle - giving her back-to-back sweeps in the Nordic races.

The Pioneers, who came together as a team in October during a weekend camping trip to Steamboat, finished with 785.5 points. That easily outdistanced rival University of Colorado (714), which served as host of the 57th championships.

New Mexico was third with 677 points, followed by Utah with 595 and Dartmouth with 523. Vermont was sixth, powered by Franz Bernstein's dramatic win Saturday in the men's 20K freestyle.

The title was DU's 21st national championship.

In the end, it was only fitting that Maempel was carried to the podium on the shoulders of her DU teammates.

She carried the team, earning 100 points alone in winning both the 5K and 15K, after doing the same in 2009.

"I can't even describe it, last year and then this year. It's just crazy," said Maempel, who pulled away down the stretch to win by six seconds over CU's Alexa Turzian in a time of 41 minutes, 3 seconds.

"You can never be sure, but I knew I had a pretty strong finish. I kind of counted on that."

Unlike last year, when the team title came down to the final event, DU pretty much won it on Day 1 when the Pioneers jumped out to a 96-point lead over CU following gold- and silver-medal performances in the men's and women's giant slalom races.

Leif Haugen took first for DU for the men and Lindsay Cone was the silver medalist in the women's race. CU's alpine racers, meanwhile, struggled, with the men posting just 56 points that day - a 66-point difference.

"We didn't want to give up 100 points the first day," said a dejected CU coach Richard Rokos, counting the 30-point differential on the women's side. "We gave up more than they earned. As organizers, it was a beautiful championship, but (as a team) we had hoped for better. We didn't come here for second."

DU head coach Andy LeRoy said he knew the giant slalom would be key this year.

"I didn't tell (our skiers), but our preparation was for that giant slalom. We didn't want to wait for it to unfold. We wanted to blow it open on that so when we got to slalom, we could, not necessarily cruise, but ski safe," he said.

CU's men, not having that luxury, had to go for it Friday night, but under pressure earned only 42 points in the slalom.

The biggest disappointment came when defending champion Gabriel Rivas was disqualified for failing to hike properly around a gate after missing it.

By the time the sun came up Saturday, it was merely a race for second place overall between CU and New Mexico, which qualified one racer short overall.

CU won that battle by going silver-bronze in the women's 15K, with Turzian second in 41:9.0 seconds, Eliska Hajkova third in 41:42.5 and, as an added bonus, Joanne Reid nabbing 10th in 43:05.0.

But there was no stopping Maempel, who sat back until the final kick to close out her career with a fourth NCAA gold.
She admitted feeling the pressure to repeat and sweep.

"It's not a nice feeling," she said. "It was a little harder this year. Last year I didn't have the pressure because I thought maybe I'd end up on the podium."

The woman who came to DU because its then-coach was German and some of the racers were her friends, plans to go to grad school next year, either here or somewhere in Europe.

She made it clear her competitive days were done.

"I will ski just for fun," said Maempel, 26.

Of course, judging by the smile on her face Saturday afternoon, the NCAA championship was pretty fun, too.

[sportspro]

MEN'S HOCKEY

Charged Up: Alabama-Huntsville Wins CHA Championship

The Niagara men's hockey team (12-20-4, 6-10-2 CHA) was able to force Saturday night's CHA Championship game against the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (12-17-3, 6-10-2 CHA) into overtime on a goal by Marc Zanette, but an overtime goal by Keenan Desmet ended Niagara's chances of an NCAA bid at Dwyer Arena.

After Jim Burichin gets sent to the penalty box 68 seconds into overtime, Desmet only needed about 30 more seconds to score the game-winning goal, a rebound past Purple Eagle netminder Chris Noonan.

"This was not the way I wanted our senior class to go out," head coach Dave Burkholder said. "For everything our senior class did for our program, we deserved better."

After a scoreless first period, the Chargers got on the board off of the stick of Brennan Barker. Twenty seconds later, senior Chris Moran responded by firing a laser over the glove of Chargers netminder Cameron Talbot to tie the game. Cody Campbell would score late in the second to give Alabama-Huntsville a one-goal lead heading into the third period.

Niagara went on the attack in the third period, peppering Talbot with shots from all angles. Zanette was finally able to lift a shot over Talbot four minutes into the final stanza to tie the game. The Purple Eagles had a few good chances to take the lead down the stretch, but just couldn't convert.

Noonan made 21 saves in the loss. Seniors Tyler Gotto and Moran were named to the CHA All-Tournament Team.

Niagara finishes the season at 12-20-4, with a 6-10-2 mark in the CHA.

[sportspro]

MEN'S BASKETBALL

No. 7 West Virginia Tops No. 22 Georgetown For Big East Crown

Da'Sean Butler's latest game-winner wasn't as dramatic as his first. This one did give West Virginia its first Big East championship.

The senior guard had a net draped around his neck, a brand new championship hat on his head and a special place forever in the hearts of Mountaineer fans.

"We wanted to win this for our state first because the people there love us so much and support us so much," Butler said. "I definitely know it means the world to them. ... That was our main concern, not letting the state down."

Not even close.

Butler, a senior and first-team All-Big East selection, scored in the lane with 4.2 seconds left in the seventh-ranked Mountaineers' 60-58 victory over No. 22 Georgetown on Saturday night.

That came two days after he banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer in a 54-51 quarterfinal win over Cincinnati.

"We ran the same play that we set up for the Cincinnati game," Butler said. "They kind of overplayed one side and went the other way. I came up to the top of the key, and I had to come get the ball and they kind of switched. I think Monroe was on me. And I think he had a feeling I was going to shoot a 3. I had a little hesitation, went around him and Freeman stepped up, and I had a little hop step and scooped the layup off the glass and it fell."

Third-seeded West Virginia, the only one of the top four seeds to escape the quarterfinals, was making its second championship game appearance. Just like the Mountaineers' two other wins in this tournament, this one was close and Butler had a lot to do with it.

He had 20 points for the Mountaineers (27-6) and was selected the tournament MVP and there wasn't much doubt about that.

Chris Wright had 20 points for the eighth-seeded Hoyas (23-10). His length-of-the-court drive to tie the game came up short.

"I was just thinking to get to the basket, try to finish, get a layup," Wright said. "I had time on the clock, I wasn't thinking about a pullup or anything, just get to the basket."

The win left West Virginia in the running for a possible No. 1 seed when the NCAA tournament field is announced Sunday night.

"We have 18 top 100 wins. We have nine top 50 wins. Our non-league RPI was second. Our strength of schedule is going to be 1. We're going to end up in the top two or three in the RPI," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said, reciting his team's qualifications for a No. 1 seeding. "They say do those things, we've done those things.

"We are what we are," Huggins added. "We're just going to keep competing. If the day comes we're going to lose in the next few weeks, we're going to go down swinging."

Wellington Smith had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Mountaineers, who have won six straight and eight of nine.

The championship game was the perfect cap to a tournament full of close games - seven of the 15 were decided by three points or fewer - and upsets.

Austin Freeman, who was diagnosed last week with diabetes, hit a 3 for Georgetown with 51 seconds left to tie the game at 56.

Butler missed a 3-point attempt about 15 seconds later and West Virginia was able to get the rebound. Wright fouled Joe Mazzulla out near midcourt with 27 seconds to go and he made both to break the tie.

"I made a mistake," Wright said in admitting he hadn't looked at the scoreboard.

Wright scored on a nice spin move with 17 seconds left for the game's final tie.

West Virginia took a timeout with 9 seconds to go. Butler got the ball just below the foul line and hit a fallaway in the lane for the 60-58 lead.

Wright's miss at the buzzer left Georgetown still with its record of seven Big East titles.

The Hoyas, who had blowouts wins over South Florida and Marquette around a 91-84 victory over top-seeded and third-ranked Syracuse in the quarterfinals, were trying to become the second-lowest seed to win a championship behind Syracuse, which was in 2006 as a No. 9 seed. They were also trying to become the third team to win four games in a tournament, matching Syracuse in 2006 and Pittsburgh in 2008.

The one thing Georgetown does know about its seeding in the NCAA tournament is that it will be better than the No. 8 it managed in the conference tournament.

"It's hard to analyze that right now just because I'm extremely disappointed, we have three guys with me that are extremely disappointed, we have a locker room down the hall with a bunch of other guys that are disappointed," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said when asked about his team's NCAA prospects. "That said, I don't think this group ever lost confidence in what we're doing, lost confidence in each other."